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Primary sourceSculpturec. 1279 BCE

Seated Statue of Ramesses II

c. 1279 BCE

A granodiorite statue showing the young Ramesses II seated, wearing the blue crown and holding a crook.

This statue is a lifetime portrait of Ramesses II as a young king, made during his own reign.

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Close-up of a dark grey stone statue of a pharaoh wearing a blue-style crown with a raised uraeus cobra and a finely incised pattern, with a smiling face, arms crossed over the chest holding a scepter, and carved pleated royal garment. Plain grey background.
Statue of Ramesses II, granodiorite, c. 1279 BCE. Museo Egizio, Turin.

About this source

What it is

This is a granodiorite statue carved during the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, dated to the start of the reign of Ramesses II. It shows the king seated, wearing the blue crown with a raised uraeus cobra, his arms crossed over his chest holding a scepter. It is kept today in the Museo Egizio in Turin.

Why it matters

Curators describe this as one of the finest lifetime portraits of the young king. It shows how Egyptian sculptors shaped royal images to present an idealised, youthful, divine ruler, and gives historians a sense of how Ramesses II wanted to be seen early in his long reign.

Look closer

  • What does the calm, smiling expression suggest about how the king wanted to be remembered?
  • Why might the crown and crook have been important symbols to include?
  • What parts of the real person might this idealised image leave out?

This sculpture is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Ramses II (Ramses the Great) on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Two clay cuneiform tablets on a clear acrylic stand against a red background. The larger tablet is broken into several fragments, covered in dense wedge-shaped writing. A smaller tablet fragment sits at lower right, also inscribed.Document

Primary source

Egyptian–Hittite Peace Treaty

c. 1258 BCE

Sepia photograph of the facade of the Abu Simbel temple in Egypt, with four seated colossal statues of Ramesses II carved into the rock. A small standing man at lower left shows scale. A doorway lies between the middle statues, and hieroglyphs are carved across the upper wall.Photograph

Secondary source

Abu Simbel Temple Colossi

Pascal Sébah · 1875

Facade of the Great Temple at Abu Simbel carved into a sandstone cliff under a clear blue sky. Four seated colossal statues of a pharaoh flank the central doorway, with a sand-covered walkway leading up to the entrance.Artifact

Primary source

Abu Simbel

Ramesses II · c. 1273 BCE

Sepia photograph of the Abu Simbel temple facade in Egypt. A colossal seated stone statue of a pharaoh with a striped headdress dominates the right. Beside it stands a statue of a falcon-headed god wearing a sun disk. Relief carvings and hieroglyphs cover the wall, and a small seated man at the bottom gives scale. Caption reads Abou Simbel, Gd Temple, Le dieu Soleil Ra et Rhamses II, P. Sébah.Photograph

Secondary source

Facade Detail of Abu Simbel Showing Ramesses II and Ra

Pascal Sébah · 1875

Sepia photograph of the ruined Ramesseum temple at Luxor, Egypt. Four fallen-headed colossal seated statues stand before a sandstone gateway with carved hieroglyphs on its lintel. A broken statue lies in the foreground, and a small figure sits near the base of the statues. Desert and a column are visible on the left.Photograph

Secondary source

Ramesseum Colossi in Ruins

Pascal Sébah · c. 1875

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